The Payoff
by x.raiinboww.x
Summary: Series of one shots based of the art work of Musesilver. NaruSaku . This is the story; a time line if you will. As two ninja grow up and become stronger. One to be Hokage and the other as a medic nin. Together...? Something much more.
1. Your Sheild 1

**A/N: **_Well, technically my second fan fiction, so no need to go easy. This series had been inspired by the artworks of: MuseSilver. _

_Theme for this one shot is: http://musesilver(dot)deviantart(dot)com/art/Your-Shield-80660279_

**Enjoy. **

**:)**

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**+ Your Shield 1. Naruto Saves Sakura + **

* * *

"Naruto, you baka, move," Sakura screamed from across the battle field.

Still keeping an eye on the blonde with the corner of her eye, she finished the enemy Missing-nin that she had coming from the side with a quick Scalpel to the torso, hitting a sweet spot as blood spurted every where, some of it landing on her already permanently stained and ruined shinobi uniform.

"Baka," she growled under her breath as she charged some of her remaining charkra in to the palm of her hand, before slamming into the ground and creating a tsunami of dirt.

The dirt continued up in the giant wave until it hit its targets: the Missing-nins. The full impact unleashed upon them with a small boom. At first it had made them loose their balance. They were able to get up again, but as the second shock wave rolled in, nearly all of them were either falling forwards or backwards. Giving Naruto a few extra seconds at the most.

Sakura used her Scalpel to finish off the second Missing-nin that had being lurking behind her. Doing some quick mental calculation she figured her kill count to be at least five for the day. Not thinking too much of the number she continued over to Naruto, where he was apparently still fighting the lead ninja.

She was also unaware of rouge that had successful being observing the little battle the whole time, undetected. The same rouge that was now behind her, and about to plunge a kunai through her heart.

Fortunately Naruto was the one to spot that his Sakura-chan was in danger. Wiping the sweat on his brow away and resisting the urge to place a hand over his pumping heart in order to try and bring its beating down. Sucking up the fear and shock the Jinchuuriki managed to create a shadow clone to try and distract the additional rouge. In the span of about just two seconds, the second Naruto came into existence.

The second clone looked around at the blood drenched ground and countless bodies that were either victims of Naruto or Sakura, which littered the battle ground. Not the slightest perturbed by the sight of death, the clone looked back to its originator and awaited instructions.

Naruto, who was back to trying to fend of the lead Missing-nin, had to struggle to huff out his directions to the shadow clone. While trying to narrowly avoid some extra long kunai that the Missing-nins fingers had just transformed in to.

"Go over there and help Sakura-chan!"

Without any indication as where 'over there' was the clone was left to scout out the pink hair kunoichi by itself. Spotting her near a clump of thorny bushes, the clone dashed off to rescue the seemingly unaware damsel in distress.

As the clone ran towards the kunoichi with the intention to help, it instead only ended up making the scenario worse. As it fell to the ground and poof out of existence, it had activated a trap, as it had tumbled over a trip wire.

The one advantage it had held was that the noise had encouraged Sakura to take a peek at the goings on behind her. Pivoting around on her heel she came face to face with the rouge.

At the same time the weapons from the trip wire had been released from the other side of the clearing and were headed exactly in the direction of where Sakura was standing. Naruto was the only one to notice the incoming barrage of weapons headed towards his Sakura-chan and where she was standing.

For a split second he held his breath as he watched the glittering metal fly across the clearing, getting and closer and closer to Sakura.

It wasn't instinct that made him race across the clearing towards the kunoichi. It was out of his own free will that he was racing towards her. Knowing that he was going to run into the weapons.

Everything was in slow motion as he ran. He was actually right in the centre of the horde of weapons. It was like – no he was going at super speed.

How?

An outsider could see the hints of demon charkra that surrounded the Jinchuuriki, how the red, almost flame like, flickers licked the sides of his feet as he propelled through the air. Appearing to be nothing more than a red blur to Sakura.

Naruto didn't look back as he ran towards Sakura, and as he launched towards the startled kunoichi. The position in which he landed was rather awkward. Right in between Sakura's legs, so that their hips met. His entire torso leaned over her body, leaving barley any room in between them. His arms were placed either side of her, supporting him even as the weapons hit their target.

When the weapons did hit his back, Naruto let out a small grunt of pain for each one. Only three kunai managed to hit him, the rest of the weapons lay scattered around him. But the one big kunai that did hit was rather close to his heart, and unknown to Sakura or Naruto, managed to rupture an artery.

Not caring that he was starting to bleed, Naruto turned his head and glared at the rouge. Growling slightly as he did so, bloodlust clouding his mind and vision, as an overwhelming desire to behead the rogue begun to surface in his mind. His fingers practically twitched with keenness.

Meanwhile, Sakura hadn't see any of the weapons headed towards her. She was just staring open mouth with shock at Naruto and his demon eyes. The sheer redness shocked her, and she could have sworn that there was almost a red highlight to his hair as well.

Naruto stayed in place, hovering protectively over his Sakura-chan and continuing to growl at the rouge until Kakashi came bounding into the scene and finished off the rouge with a quick swish his shruiken, which returned to the silver hair ninja like a boomerang.

Naruto rotated his head back around to look into shocked emerald eyes, that were starting to get blurry, maybe due to his lack of blood, or the dizzying relief that Sakura was alright. She was alive.

With that last positive thought, Naruto let go and collapsed into her waiting arms.

"Thank you baka," Sakura whispered gently down into his surprisingly soft blonde hair, before raising a hand with two intentions, to hug and to heal.

"My baka," she unintentionally said out loud – the only person catching the slip was too immersed with their Icha Icha Paradise to think much of it.

As the green light started to emit from her hands, she brought her hand down and stroked the unconscious Jinchuurikislowly, putting all her gratitude into the contact and mentally promising herself to later by her savior an extra large bowl of Beef Miso Ramen.

If he survived…for as she had just realized, her healing wasn't doing anything.

**A/N: **_All I want for Christmas is a review…._


	2. Motivation

**A/N: Sorry that it is late. Another one-shot that can be tied to the first one. This particular one was inspired by another master piece of MuseSilver's: **_http://musesilver(dot)deviantart(dot)com/art/Motivation-75904803_

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**+ Motivation +**

**- **_hi_s_ reason to exist_** –**

* * *

"_Get me the paddles now, his bmp is below seventy and still dropping..."_

"**Naruto, no. Hold on Naruto—"**

"_Charged! Somebody move her now!"_

"**No, get off me! Get off me! Naruto! Naruto!"**

"_CLEAR!"_

* * *

Weightless. That's what he felt. Like there was nothing to hold him down. Gravity had let him go. He had let go of everything. He couldn't remember ever feeling this free. In fact, he couldn't seem to remember anything.

Did he have a name…?

Yes. But what was it?

Was it Naruto? Like that voice that was calling out that name.

Was it calling him?

That concern faded away, as a new sensation over took him.

Something was tickling him. Like static electricity. Almost the same reaction he had whenever Sakura-chan touched him.

There was a pause in his thoughts.

Who was Sakura-chan? It didn't sound like his name.

Was that who was calling him?

"Open your eyes, kit," a deep voice grunted.

He found himself obeying, strangely. And as his cerulean eyes slowly opened all he could see was red. Not from anger though, he was literally surrounded by the colour, and as he pivoted around, searching for signs of life of which there were none.

"Anyone there?" he called out into the nothingness, with vein hope that he might get a reply.

Instead he only heard the voice again, it was chuckling. He could also feel himself becoming heavier. Slowly the increase of weight started to make him sink, which was when the panic to stay afloat consumed him.

"Stay still," the voice commanded again and once more, he followed the order; some how knowing that if he didn't comply than the consequences would probably be death.

He finally stopped sinking when he an impromptu crash landing on the floor. Cursing his headache and the voice all the way. But as his headache increased images and film clips began to flood his brain.

Picture after picture filled his mind, making his head feel like it was going to implode. But not all of the pictures were the same. The pictures varied in quality; some were fuzzy and looked older while others, probably the more recent memories, were crystal clear. He was able to discern that some of them contained a threesome of people, called Team 7. While the movie clips generally stared a certain girl with pink hair: Sakura-chan, as he was later able to identify her.

Eventually the flow of images settled down into a trickle and before coming to a complete stop. Allowing his head a reprieve from the extremely painful recollection process. Who ever knew that memories could be so painful? The lack of pain also enabled Naruto to discern, who the voice was: the Kyuubi, which actually wasn't teasing him for once.

Curious as to why the Kyuubi was refraining from providing a commentary on his intelligence or lack thereof, he was about to speak his mind, when the Kyuubi actually beat him to it.

"I am silent kit for I bear your burden," the Kyuubi informed him with a strained growl.

Naruto just looked confused, "Nani?" He had no idea as to what the demon-fox was on about.

The Kyuubi did not take kindly to this lack of knowledge, and flared it chakra displaying its dislike rather prominently, "Don't insult me!"

Naruto backed up from the chakra that rolled of the Kyuubi's body like flames. Said flames were headed in his direction. His eyes became as round as saucers as he shouted back, "What was that for?" Rubbing his backside at the same time, where it felt a little bit singed.

The Kyuubi growled but did not answer, prompting Naruto to walk right up to it, which led him to notice for the first time that he was on the wrong side of the bars. Forgetting all about the threat of the Kyuubi, Naruto ran up to the bars and wrapped his hands around one each and pulled, as if trying to pry them apart. All that came from the attempt was an odd burning smell.

Naruto looked down and saw steam coming from his hands. It took a while for him to process where the steam was coming fret out a yelp and leapt away from the bars, whilst blowing comically at his hand, that had a gone a rather bright red from the searing heat of the bars.

"You squeal worse than those fan girls of the Uchiha brat," the Kyuubi laughed at Naruto's reaction, but was cut off as its laughter turned into coughing; as it lost some its chakra (unwillingly) through the walls of its prison.

The bright flare of the charka leaving the Kyuubi's caught Naruto's attention from his still steaming hands, as he waved them through the air like a maniac in an attempt to cool them down. Turning around he saw that the Kyuubi's once tangible body was flickering in and out of existence, as it lost even more charka. Following the loose charkra up to the ceiling, Naruto pointed and asked, "What's with the charkra?"

The Kyuubi did not provide an answer; instead rather saw fit to change the subject as it coincidently flicked one of its once more tangible tails in the direction of Naruto, nearly crushing him, grumbling to itself when it missed.

Affronted by the Kyuubi's attempt to kill him, Naruto walked right up to it again, placing so that he stood with an akimbo stance right in front of the demon fox, as he repeated him self, "What was that for?"

The Kyuubi regarded Naruto for a moment, almost like it was contemplating whether or not it should eat him, evidently deciding not to out of it's endless compassion, instead it lowered it's head until it was at Naruto's height and breathed on him. Just as it was about to speak, Naruto seemed incapable of withholding his crude comment.

"Have you ever heard of a breath mint?" he asked as he waved his hand in front of his face, trying to get rid of smell that was the Kyuubi's putrid breath.

"You think it wise to mock the one keeping you alive kit?"

"What?"

"I'm not about to die, even if it means saving a useless whelp like you. I have yet to extract my revenge."

Naruto's face just looked pained.

The Kyuubi laughed ruthlessly and glanced up at the ceiling of its inappropriately sized prison, appearing to flicker in and out of existence, before it looked down at the human and commented, "You also have reason to keep living kit."

It was Naruto's turn to snarl at the Kyuubi, "Like what?"

* * *

"**Naruto! Can you hear me? Narut—"**

"_Sakura he's not coming back…"_

"**No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…"**

"_It's time to let go."_

"**Naruto! You promised me! You promised! You can't go! Naruto!"**

* * *

"Surely you intend to mate with the female," the Kyuubi remarked snidely, causing Naruto to choke on his own spit.

"W-w-w-wha-" he couldn't even manage to finish the word, as his throat had suddenly dried up.

Naruto's reaction merely caused the Kyuubi to chuckle, "Kit, you're worse than that vixen that seeks to court you."

By then Naruto was too dumbstruck to even contemplate a reply.

The Kyuubi sighed at the lack of reaction from its human container, "Do you still not have a promise to fulfil to the Cherry Blossom?"

"Eh?" Naruto had miraculously managed a one syllable response, not much, but it was still a sign on improvement.

"Kit, the oath that was made to bring back that Uchiha-brat," the Kyuubi supplied, fed up with Naruto's lack of competence.

"Oh." As the meaning of the Kyuubi's words sunk in Naruto couldn't help but muse over the truth of them.

He looked upwards at the thought of his Sakura-chan. He could just imagine her face, and as he did, his cobalt eyes filled with sorry, from merely thinking about his precious person being in any more pain. She had already lost one team-mate, and it could possibly break her to lose another.

* * *

"**Naruto, you truly will be a baka if you give up now. Do you hear me, Naruto? Don't give up!"**

"_The body needs to be moved down to the morgue, we need this bed…"_

"**No, no it doesn't. And this isn't a body. It's still Naruto, and in case you haven't noticed, he isn't dead yet!"**

"_Sakura-senpai, he flat-lined five minutes ago and, as a medic you know the hospital policy on-"_

"**Screw the policy; I can't loose another team mate. Do you hear that Naruto? You're not allowed to leave me. You can't…you can't leave me. You know I can't cope on my own. Please, don't leave me. Please…"**

* * *

But wouldn't she only want him pack to complete his promise to retrieve the teme? Yes, he had made that promise knowing what it would intern, but what of it now? At first it had been made to win her heart, and with the naïve belief that he could save his best friend. Then as he had matured it seemed to be more out of duty to bring his team-mate home. But now…now…he didn't even know what that promise anymore.

Yet, he was unable to discredit the look of happiness that would be on her face, if he did manage to bring the teme home. There would be a cheerful glow and a real smile for the teme (who was the real baka in his opinion) who had no idea how precious her smiles really were. And if he were there to witness that fabled smile…then yes.

That would be enough reason.

The Kyuubi showed to be rather doubtful about his reasoning, and naturally saw fit to question his logic. "You chose to live, just to see the female's smile?"

"It sounds stupid if you say it like that!" he shot back, annoyed that the demon fox was ruining the sentiment of his decision.

The Kyuubi just grunted and shook its massive head, not liking the fact that it was being kept alive by the whimsical fantasy of the human, to see the Cherry Blossom smile. Not wanting to have to put up with the simpleton human any longer, the Kyuubi started focusing on the charka to leave his body and surround the Kit.

The Kyuubi chuckled, having to have the last word, also choosing to impart a little bit of wisdom into its dense human host, "You are a fool, kit. If you truly believe that to be the only reason the Cherry Blossom wishes you alive."

Naruto, giving the Kyuubi one last confused look as he tried to brush of the little sparks of red charkra that stuck to his body and wouldn't come off. He was just about to ask, 'What are you on about?', but it was too late.

The red charkra had completely surrounded him by then and with a great flare of light, he was gone.

* * *

"_Sakura-senpai, please let go of the body. Don't make me call security."_

"**No. You aren't taking Naruto anywhere, because he isn't dead!"**

"_Please, senpai, his heart stopped beating over ten minutes ago."_

"**Y-you, you don't know what you're talking about. His heart is still going. Look, I've got my head on his chest and I—"**

"_What is it Sakura-senpai?"_

"…**give me the stethoscope, quickly!"**

"_What, wh—"_

"**Now!"**

"_Alright, already. Here."_

…

…

"**Oh Kami, thank you – I knew you wouldn't leave me…"**

"_Senpai? Sakura-senpai, where are you going?!"_

"**He's alive! Shishou! Naruto's alive!"**

* * *

As Naruto came to he was greeted with a mixture of messages from his senses that flooded his already groggy brain. His nose burned from the over whelming scent of antiseptic, telling him that he was in the hospital. The light beeping of the heart monitor told him, that he was most likely in the intensive care unit. And the soft strokes of baby soft skin again his own course arms, told him that he was not alone. People were waiting for him to wake up and as he opened his eyes, he could see one person in particular that sent the heart monitor flying…

"Sakura-chan," he rasped, bleary eyes focusing on her mussy pink hair and her own set of weary eyes that spoke the volumes of her distress and worry over something. Him? He quickly dismissed the thought and attempted to say her name again, to find out what had her so anxious.

"I knew you would make it," she murmured into his ear, as she drew him into a bone crushing hug. Naruto hugged her back, nuzzling his face into her sweet neck, wanting to stick out his tongue and…

'_Hentai thoughts, not good, not good. Come back from the dead and I am already trying to get myself re-killed!'_

But as he went to say 'Sakura-chan' he was stopped by the very girl, just about choking him, by shoving a paddle pop stick down his mouth and telling him to say, "Ahhh."

"Wha oo ooing auukra-an?" Naruto tried to speak with the stick shoved half way down his throat, only managing to make a few unrecognisable syllables and earning a blinding flash of light into his eyes.

As soon as the flash moved onto his next eye, the paddle pop stick was removed, enabling him to speak again. "What the hell are you doing Sakura-chan?"

"What's your name?"

"Nani?"

"Who is the current Hokage?"

"What are you on about Sakur-OW! What was that?" He nearly jumped out of his skin as he felt something banging against his knee.

"Appears to be no brain damage, Shishou," Sakura sighed with relief and laughed as she thought privately to herself, '_Yep, still looks like the same on Naruto-baka. Thank you, Kami, thank you_.'

"Any m-more thann, er…what's that word again? Oi, Kakashi what's 'nother word fa' normal?" slurred a drunker Tsunade, still holding a half full cup of sake in her hand. Managing not to spill a single drop as she staggered over to Naruto's bed side, practically shaking with silent sobs which were only held back by tipping her head back and sculling the remaining sake.

Whilst Tsunade knocked back the rest of her favourite drink, Naruto turned to face the only occupant of the room who would ever be caught dead reading porn in a hospital. His one and only sensei, Hatake Kakashi. "Sensei," he greeted smoothly, his voice an octave higher due to Sakura poking at something unmentionable.

"Naruto," Kakashi replied, not even looking up from his book. Naruto made a face at the behaviour of the older man, disgruntled that he couldn't even spare him a glance. His frown deepened as he saw the chance to get answers, ended with this person as well. Sakura-chan definitely wasn't going to tell him anything until she came back into friend-mode, out of distant medic-mode, that is. Tsunade? Maybe…

"Hey, Baa-chan," he croaked, blinking slowly as watched her reaction. She had finished chugging down her drink a while ago and had been silently observing him for the time been. As she heard him call out her lower lip had started to tremble and Naruto had detected some movement out of the corner of his eye from his silver-haired sensei.

He turned his head to face Kakashi, but was confused to see nothing but an empty chair where his sensei had once being sitting, to only turn his head back and come face to face with the sneaky ninja. The shock of seeing Kakashi sent a wave of shock through him and made the heart monitor go off with all kinds of alarms and whistles as it detected the increase in his heart rate. The action earned Kakashi a dirty glare from Sakura, who by then was going over Naruto's charts and did not appreciate the scare.

Kakashi crinkled his eye and chuckled light heartedly, as he patted Naruto on the head and told him, "Great that you're alive, but, I…ah have an appointment at the hairdressers…"

"Is that the best you can do?" Naruto arched a yellow eyebrow at the pathetic excuse that his sensei provided.

"Well, I don't want to be around during the theatrics," Kakashi finally confessed, giving Naruto one last pat on the shoulder before he poofed out of existence, leaving no evidence that he had ever being there, other than the lingering cloud of smoke from the teleportation jutsu, and a but print from where he had being sitting on the chair.

Just as Kakashi got out of the road, Tsunade came barrelling in for her own piece of Naruto action, as she wrapped her arms around him and let her walls crumble, not afraid to show the fear she had felt. The paranoia that she was going to lose a third person; her brother, than Dan…but Kami had being lenient that time and had spared him. Naruto was live. But there he was hugging him…

"Um, B-baa-chan, you're killing me…again! Sakura-chan help!" He struggled to breathe against Tsunade's assets as she crushed him against her chest.

Upon hearing Naruto's plea, Tsunade rushed back in the same instant as Sakura rushed to his side.

"What's wrong are you alright?" She pressed her hand against his forehead, feeling for a temperature. She continued on with her list of question, with each one, concern laced her voice even more, "Are you having hallucinations? Are you thirsty? Do you feel any pain anywhere? Do you have a-"

He held up his hand to silence her. "I'm fine, Sakura-chan."

Her viridian eyes danced with apprehension, as she had to ask one last time, placing a hand in his and enjoying the warmth that she had so been so close to losing, "Are you sure?"

"Yes," he nodded, looking her in the eye and trying to reassure her that he was completely fine, for a guy who had come back from the dead.

"Okay," she nodded and grinned, moving her head forwards so that their brows met in a touching gestures.

"Ne, Naruto?" Sakura asked, breaking the silence that had followed after their rather emotional moment.

"Yeah?" Naruto whispered back, trying to be as quiet as possible, not wanting to draw the attention of the currently distracted Hokage to himself and Sakura-chan.

Sakura had to suppress a shiver as Naruto's fowl but warm breath caressed her face and set her cheeks ablaze. "Why?"

"Why what?"

Sakura snorted. Yep, he was still the same old baka that she knew and lo-liked. "Why did you come back? What made you come back?" She blushed as the last few words poured out of her mouth in a tumble, influenced by the paranoia that he could have possibly…heard her earlier; which shouldn't have been feasible due to him being dead and all, but he had come back from the dead for Kami's sake, so Sakura was being rather careful not to go ruling out all the option, just yet.

Naruto held in his breathe as he took in the enormity of her question. He had to options to answer this. One: honest, saying that he came back to make her happy. Two: lie and come up with some random reason.

Naturally he went with option two. So he crinkled his eyes in perfect imitation of their sensei and cheerfully relayed his answer to her, "I would miss ramen."

Sakura's eyes widened and she immediately wrenched her away from contact with Naruto's. On initial reflex to dealing with the baka tendencies of her team mate, she could feel her fists clenching and shaking with anticipation to hit him. But a little alarm bell in her head by the name of: Inner Sakura, warned against such action. Explaining how assaulting a recovering was not a good idea in the first place along with the little fact that she could completely give herself away with such actions.

Instead, she answered the baka statement by rolling her eyes at him and scoffing, "Naturally." But moved back to him, still wanting the physical proximity of him to reassure herself that he was really alive and it wasn't some kind of sickening genjutsu.

"'Sides," he unwillingly mumbled, but figured that it would be easier to get it over and done with now. Casting a mournful look to the pink hair girl Naruto continued to speak the half-truth of the reason he had come back, "I made you a promise…"

It Sakura's heart's turn to come to a standstill, as she felt his words hit her like one of her Shishou's punches in a training drill. All she could hear was her blood pounding in her ears, but that did not stop her lip-reading what Naruto was saying. Which she didn't like. He had only come back to bring back Sasuke-kun?

She inhaled with a sharp breath and closed her eyes. Naruto watched at her thick fan of lashes brushed against her cheek as she closed her eyes. He shifted closer to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Sakura-chan, are you alright?"

Realising that she was mopping, Sakura quickly snapped out of her stupor and back into friend-mode. "Don't worry, we'll find Sasuke-kun together."

Naruto nodded absentmindedly, completely fixated on the fake smile that was plastered across her face, trying to draw the attention away from the inner turmoil that she seemed to be facing. He didn't like that smile. But that was his motivation for coming back, after all.

To see her smile….

"Hai, Sakura-chan. Together."

* * *

**A/N: **_Reviews make my fingers type faster. :)_


	3. Enough

**A/N: This one was begging to be written. Seriously it called out to me. The artwork…is just amazing! MuseSilver, I think somehow managed to raid Kishimoto's brain and steal a little of his "juju" and replicate Team Seven in the future perfectly…the tension and kind of emotions that anyone would expect to be present. Get's me every time how she can do that. But enough of me rambling. Check out the wonder for yourself: http://musesilver(dot)deviantart(dot)com/art/Team-7-Enough-105367048**

**E**noug**h**

"Hey, teme," Naruto greeted his team-mate with a casual nod and a mouthful of ramen.

Sasuke 'hn'ed, and acquiescent to the silent invitation to sit beside the blonde. He waited for Naruto to swallow before issuing his own greeting.

"Dobe."

"Yeah, it is a good morning isn't it?" Naruto replied, before shoving another bunch of ramen into his mouth.

Sasuke watched with the usual hidden disgust at his team-mate's atrocious table manners. Every slurp, all the licking and sound of food being mashed around in Naruto's mouth, made the hair on back of his neck rise. Yet, he put up with it; Kami only knowing why.

"So teme," Naruto started but paused to at least swallow some of the contents of his mouth, making it a little easier for Sasuke to understand him as he continued, "you feel like a spar? If you're still sore from the needle and not up to it…" Naruto's devious smile was hidden by the shadow of his overgrown hair. He just loved riling up Sasuke.

Sasuke, on the other hand, that Naruto was only trying to get a rise out of him. What annoyed him the most however, was that most of the time it worked. His pride as a high-level shinobi and Uchiha, disallowed him to be mocked in such a manner. Especially someone like Naruto, who he could consider being nearly on par with him.

While, Sasuke when through his usual internal scolding at falling for Naruto's bait, Naruto had to stop himself from grinning directly at his victim.

"Hn," Sasuke nodded once, finally agreeing with Naruto.

Unable to hold it back out any longer, Naruto jumped up from his chair, chopsticks pointed skywards and struck a pose. Looking like a complete idiot to Sasuke.

"Sit down, dobe," Sasuke commanded.

Naruto peaked open one creased eye and looked down at the already cranky Uchiha. He sweat-dropped and slowly sat pack down and bogged back into his bowl of ramen.

It wasn't much longer before, "Finished!" was declared loudly by Naruto. As he shoved his third bowl of ramen away from him

Sasuke remained still, observing how Naruto still had a little noodle hanging onto the edge of his mouth. He smirked to himself, as Naruto stood back up and started marching in the direction of the training ground. Sasuke eventually stood up and started to follow Naruto, still smirking about the odd looks Naruto received, while the blonde himself remained oblivious as to why.

By the time they reached the training field, Sasuke felt like his ears were going to start bleeding at any second. And Naruto was still going.

"Shut up, dobe," Sasuke growled, as he walked by Naruto to take up his position at the other end of the training field.

Naruto otherwise ignored him, and even as the spar commenced, Naruto continued to prattle on about his anniversary plans with Sakura later that night. That in turn just increase Sasuke's annoyance. When had he ever given a sign that he wanted to hear about how 'perfect' the dobe's life was?

Sasuke's irritation grew substantially as Naruto effortless evaded all of his attacks. And still wouldn't shut up.

Soon, Sasuke was really kicking it into gear and went after Naruto with killing intent. Whilst coming to the conclusion that every hit Naruto dodged, was just a taunt. Yes, even at killing intent level, Sasuke could not even manage to land a single hit on him.

By then Naruto was talking about his plans for the future. For his Sakura-chan, and if they stay together long enough, than a family. A family to call his own. Although Naruto was quick to amend himself, dodging a kunai aimed at his heart, reassuring Sasuke that he would be a part of that family as well.

Sasuke didn't appreciate the sentiment. In fact he saw it as even more mocking. Naruto soon trailed off as he saw Sasuke going straight into level two of the Curse Seal.

As Sasuke attacked him again, Naruto is forced to start fighting back. But soon Sasuke was able to gain the upper hand and was fuelled by his jealously. But jealously over what? Sasuke was certainly not in the frame of mind to be figuring it out.

Naruto was aware that he was a goner. But he did not activate any tails. Not on purpose. Or even accidentally. Because of his promise that he made to Sakura-chan and himself. And he would continue to keep it. Even if it meant his death.

_Meanwhile…_

As some people could tell you living inside a Hidden Village, was good for protection and all, with plenty of ninja's at disposal, ready to protect their land at a moment's notice. But one pick haired kunoichi was started to have second thoughts about Konoha been so great. It was so big, making up large travel distances to get anywhere, and then the ninja. They were the cause of her grief. Trying to track down just one of them was proving to be a pain.

Naruto was nowhere to be found. She had already checked the ramen stall, fully expecting to have found him there, but from the owner told her both Naruto and Sasuke had come and left quite a while ago. Meaning, that they had the potential to be anywhere by now.

She was back to square one.

Thanking the ramen stall owner, Sakura turned around and started walking towards the next most likely places. All the while muttering about shinobi, should GPS chips installed into their clothing, or better yet somewhere in their body, something that would make finding any one them a hell of a lot easier. Saving people like her time and effort.

She managed to check out three more places, but there was still no siting of the boys. Not a flash of blonde, or flicker of black hair anywhere.

She was had just moved on from the fifth possible location and was still fuming to herself, when she finally noticed the chakra signature, that had being followng her since the ramen stall.

Sakura didn't completely stop walking, but she slowed her pace enough so that she could a better sense of the charkra as it kept coming closer and closing the gap in between her and it.

It was soon within the fifty metre radius of her and she had no idea who it belonged to and knowing the only way she was going to find out was if she confronted the person, Sakura stopped walking all together and turned.

She sighed when she saw it was just a genin. Who was panting and puffing out of effort it had taken to keep up with the higher ranked kunoichi, even though all she had being paced at was a brisk walk…enhanced by charkra.

"Haruno-san," the genin managed to address her with a wheeze, but soon was cut off, as he was force to catch his breath.

Sakura waited impatiently for the child to stop huffing. So annoyed by the time she was wasting, she even caught herself checking the time on her imaginary watch.

When the genin looked like they had just about recovered, Sakura jumped straight to the point.

"What do you want?"

The genin, not startled by her cutthroat manner, proceeded to explain why he had being chasing her all over town.

"Are you still looking for your team-mates?"

Sakura instantly warmed up to the genin, and smiled, hoping that it would speed up the information sharing process. He obviously knew something.

"Yes, and do you know where they are?" she asked sweetly, coming up to the genin and shifted down, as not to intimidate the child with her height.

The genin nodded. "I saw them spar-."

They were cut off by Sakura's loud exclamation, "Of Course!"

With that Sakura stood up and started heading in the direction of the training grounds, cursing her stupidity to not check there after the ramen stall. She was so wrapt up in her thoughts, she didn't notice the genin still trailing behind her, babbling about the intensity of the spar, and the injuries that they had seen Naruto receive.

As Sakura came to the edge of the training, the genin saw fit to slink away. Not wanting to follow the kunoichi into such a high level battle, which had probably become even more intense since the last time they had seen it.

Sakura already brisk walk, turned into a jog as she passed the first training ground, and seeing that it was empty. Training ground two went by in a blur as her jog turned into running. As she passed training ground three, she went into a full out sprint as she heard the ever-familiar sound of a jutsu: twittering birds.

Finally, coming up to training ground four, Sakura arrived to witness, Sasuke reverting back to level one of the Curse Seal. He also had his katana out, Chidori crackling all over it and aiming it at something in particular. Her eyes followed the course of the aim and she gasped at Naruto, who was struggling to stand up.

Fear pumped through her veins, as her gaze drifted back to Sasuke. Her eyes going wide as he took a step forward and raised the lightning covered katana. Sasuke's own gaze was locked onto his target and didn't catch the streaking shock of pink in his peripheral vision, nor the face of his female team-mate, standing in the way of his victim. So, without a second thought he started his charge.

Sakura, not acting of her own conscious will, had raced towards Naruto, not realising what she had done, until she was standing in a protective stance in front of the blonde. Her fists clenched as she locked her the muscles in calves and thighs, preparing for a grunt match between herself, and Sasuke with his still active Curse Seal.

Naruto had seen her enter the training field and observe what was going on. What he didn't see, due to a rather sluggish blink, was her shift from the side of the fight, to standing in front of him. He looked at her up and down and didn't like what her body language was telling him. Even from behind, the tension of her muscles, and her stiff posture spoke the message loud and clear. She was prepared to finish off the battle for him; she was going to protect him. Take Chidori for him.

"Sakura-chan," he called out, hoping that she heard him over the sound of Sasuke's jutsu that was still increasing in strength and getting closer.

He was relieved when he spotted the slight tilt of her ear.

"Sakura, get out of the way," he told her, his voice amazingly firm, and loud over the deafening noise of birds.

"Shut-up, I'll deal with you shortly," she spoke in a clipped voice, not even able to hear herself, as Sasuke was about a hundred metres away.

Seventy-five metres.

Sixty metres.

At fifty metres she cracked. From the searing heat, that felt like it was blistering her face and the annoying sound of the Jutsu.

She had to scream at the very top of her lungs to be heard.

"Enough!"

Sasuke kept coming closer. And she refused to move out of the way. She would be damned if she was going to let him try and kill his team-mate. Double damned at letting him attempt to kill her precious person. So, she had no fear at the approaching shinobi. Only anger at his lack of self-control.

"_Uchiha Sasuke! Enough!"_

Sasuke stopped as he caught the sound of a familiar voice, but the tone in which the voice spoke, it didn't sound right. That tone…in his whole life only, one person had ever used it on him…his Kaa-san.

Distracted by the thoughts of his mother, the curse seal receded, and Sasuke consciously lowered the amount of charkra surging into the katana.

He looked on with confused eyes, at a furious Sakura, and a rather injured Naruto who lay behind her. His expression, turned cold as he realised that Sakura was the one who had yelled at him like that. Used that tone. Just a shout and a pink-haired girl had managed to stop him mid-charge.

Sasuke felt feelings of pathetic-ness and anger swirling around inside his already dark thoughts. He had let the Curse Seal control him again. It wasn't good. Sasuke didn't like being confused. He didn't like the emotions controlling him. Anything controlling him. He had to get away.

He needed to distract them.

He smirked. Pushing his anger and frustration into his voice as he announced, "What a perfect weak couple."

With that he teleported away.

Trying to get her brain back to a normal level of function, she muttered to herself, "He is more PMSy than Shishou and all the kunoichi in Konoha combined."

It was truly Naruto's laughter; turn to coughing; turn to hacking up blood, which brought her out of the daze.

Sakura twirled and knelt next to him. Allowing healing charkra to flow to her hands, and it slowly became visible, acting as a gauge telling her that it was alright to start healing.

Before her hand made contact with Naruto's skin, he raised a blood-splattered hand and caught her wrist. "Don't bother," he insisted. "The Kyuubi will take care of it."

At the mention of the demon fur ball, Sakura started to get angry with Naruto. "Well, why didn't you use it in the first place, huh?"

Her eyes penetrated his conscience, but he managed to answer her question. Although the answer itself was short, it held far deeper meaning.

"I promised."

He tried not to laugh at how cute she looked with her nose all scrunched up.

Her anger faded, as she recalled the promise he had made to her. Soon enough she was smiling at his comment and whispering to him softly, "I'll let you off the hook this one time, but really is it worth your life?"

Naruto nodded his head best he could while laying flat on his back. But it was his expression that really spoke his intentions to keep the promise.

Sakura kept smiling at his antics and leaned over to hug him tightly. Only to quickly leap away as Naruto was unable to keep a yelp of pain escaping him. Instantly alarmed, she leapt away from him.

Naruto internally bashed himself, for giving into the pain so easily. Sakura was now crying over the fact she was hurting him, and he couldn't stand it. He was the one who had done the real damage.

"No, no, Sakura-chan," he pleaded. "Please don't cry. You don't need to be sorry. It's my fault. I was the one who ruined out anniversary."

Sakura paused mid-sniffle. "What?"

Naruto could only blink and mimic Sakura's response, "What?"


	4. The Prior Moment

**A/N:**_ As always this one-shot can be dedicated to the awesome artwork of MuseSilver, who is literally the muse for this series. Picture theme for this one is: __http://musesilver(dot)deviantart(dot)com/art/NaruSaku-That-Prior-Moment-137365450_

**+ The Prior Moment +**

Double doors at the end of an ultra white hallway banged open, as a team of Doctors rushed in with critical patient, who needed immediate surgery. As the rolling bed and stream of Doctor's breezed past the receptionist desk at the other end of the hall, not a single person looked up; to focused on their own work and already trying to block out the other sounds which were associated with working in a hospital. Including the ever-regular cries of a certain man, Yomatsu Fumaru, who ran around with a banana hostage and his hospital gown on the literal 'right way'.

Sakura Haruno didn't even spare a glance at the Mental Ward escapist as he ran by her whilst she exited a patient's room exactly opposite the reception desk. As she walked up to the desk, she dodged the thrown banana with casual grace, but as she came to stop in front of the desk, her ears heard the whispers of her name.

She looked around and tried to pinpoint the direction she thought her name had come from. With nothing there, she shrugged it off and turned back around and started to sort through her paper work. She reasoned that that after all that holding a superior position in the hospital ranks, her name would be thrown around a lot.

But unable to suppress her curiosity any longer, Sakura found herself scanning the whole room this time and something did manage to catch her eye. Something that was out of place amongst the chaos of Yomatsu and the cry's coming through the open door to the Pediatric ward.

A little further down from her, near the cross-section of the two hallways, was a massing group of nurses, who all probably had something better to do, like looking after patients and not gossiping about her.

People were usually shocked with her skill to lip read (a talent that everyone in her team had actually), but she couldn't really help it. It came naturally after years of attempting to understand Naruto with a mouth full of ramen.

So, with the wonderful ability to lip read, she managed to catch half of what one bleached blonde was saying about her.

"_Senpai must be a lesbian. It totally makes sense!" _Sakura's jaw dropped and kept heading further south as she continued watching. _"I mean, isn't it obvious? Two hotties on her team and she hasn't made a move on either of them!"_

Sakura blushed and caught the hidden intent of the words, whereas Inner Sakura was blanching at the implication she screw around with Kakashi-sensei – thankfully that train of thought never made it to a conscious level.

Another girl, a red head this time, started to speak and Sakura found herself lip reading the situation, as it only got worse.

"_Yes, did you hear how he saved Sakura-senpai? He jumped in front of her and took like a massive death jutsu, just for her?"_

"_You have it all wrong. He totally saved her from a massive kunai, that like got her through the heart, but then the Kyuubi, like did this charkra swap things so that her injuries became his."_

"_You both have it wrong. Sakura-senpai…"_

Sakura rolled her eyes and averted her gaze from the group, not wanting to see anymore of it. Forcing herself to turn her anger onto her paperwork, not blinking, so that her vision eventually was narrowed down to nothing more than a white haze. But her gaze still remained so fierce that it actually stood the chance of setting the entire clipboard on fire.

She didn't even notice how hard she had been gripping the board until there was a loud snapping sound and several chips of wood went flying. The snap hadn't caught the attention of anyone particular. Everybody was well acclimated to Sakura killing a dozen clipboards a fortnight.

Letting the remaining bits of wood fall from her hands, like little pieces of confetti, Sakura dusted off her hands on her lab coat and found her eyes drifted back towards the even larger group of nurses. What she wasn't aware of was her feet taking miniscule steps closer to the group, so as to actually hear what the nurses were saying instead of just relying on lip reading.

Sakura's favourite nurse, who she considered to be one of her few good friends at the hospital, was right there in the group. Gossiping about her, and telling everyone, how she was simply to shy to even notice if she was receiving male attention, and that she was never going to notice how Naruto felt about her.

'What a load of crap,' she thought to herself. She would have to be totally brain dead to not notice how Naruto felt about her. He wasn't as overt with his affection towards her as Lee, but he still showed it in his own ways. Way that had become so familiar to her that she had failed to think of them as anything other than a sign of their friendship. Although now they apparently held a whole different meaning and held scary potential to change in the near future, if she didn't start being more careful about Naruto's stays at the hospital. Which were ever frequent, and each time made for the rumour mill.

She silent breathed a prayer of thanks to Kami that Naruto had already being released earlier that day. The last thing she needed on top of the gossiping nurses was the rest of the hospital staff going gaga over him. Oh, everybody loved him. He made the female medics coo, and a few of the male staff what to get highlights that were his shade of blonde. But that just Naruto, and as Sakura had resigned to the fact along time ago, there was no point in fighting it: wherever Naruto went, people were charmed for life or something really bad happens.

"Sakura-san?"

Sakura jumped out of her skin as she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. Guilt soon set in over her reaction to small physical contact. Dejected, about not paying closer attention, as all shinobi were meant to do, Sakura turned around to face the person who had successfully managed to put all her training to shame.

"Yes?" she asked, pleased to see that it was actually a Medic-nin ahead of her, which soothed her guilt slightly.

The senior Medic-nin chuckled at the junior's antics. Their light-hearted laugh was short lived as their eyes caught sight of the nurses huddled together and whispering like no tomorrow. They were quickly able to put two and two together. By the way young Sakura had being distracted and looked over in the nurses direction with an irritated expression, and a rumour of Naruto Uzumaki, having being in the hospital overnight.

"Bah," the older Medic-nin flopped a hand casually in the direction of the nurses. "Who cares about some idle prattle?"

Sakura looked to the ground. Growing more ashamed about having being caught out by the older Medic-nin.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Nani?"

Sakura looked up, confused.

The senior Medic-nin shook their head at the pink-haired girls usual lack of spirit. "Nothing of what they say is important. As a Medic-nin you must know that as long as you don't believe their illusion of you than your reputation shall remain untainted."

Sakura nodded at the sagely words of the older Medic-nin. Knowing that she shouldn't really care what they thought of her…but the problem was that she didn't. So why had she being so upset by what they were saying?

Her contemplation was interrupted by another question from the senior Medic-nin. "So, have you said thank-you yet?"

"What do you mean?" Sakura furrowed her eyebrows, trying to figure out what the older Medic-nin was on about.

The Senior Medic-nin clucked their tongue and wagged their finger at Sakura's thickness. "Have you figured out how to thank the young man who saved your life?"

Sakura blushed and grinned reluctantly realising that she still had yet to do so. She tried to control her nervous voice, as she relayed her plan to the Medic-nin.

"I-I was thinking about taking him out to get some rame-." Sakura stopped speaking as soon as she saw the mortified expression on the Medic-nin's face.

She smiled sheepishly as the Medic-nin continued to stare at her. She shuffled her foot and scoffed at her self. What had she being thinking? How could she repay someone saving her life, by taking them out for ramen? But what else could she do? She was at a mental block and had no idea what to do…

She didn't know what to do…she raised her head slightly and looked up hopefully at the Medic-nin and asked for some more wisdom. "What should I do?"

The Medic-nin gestured at Sakura's mouth. Sakura frowned, and raised a hand to cover her mouth. Did she have something in her teeth? Was her breath bad?

The Senior Medic-nin had to resist the urge to thump the girl one. Instead they just sighed and began explaining the conversation that they had with Naruto over Sakura. Pertaining how he was still hopelessly devoted to her – who the Medic-nin chucked about, smiling as they told the part of Naruto's strong denial. Their voice grew extremely soft, as they explained the next topic of discuss between themselves and Naruto. About Sakura had an absolutely lovely smile. Blushing hard, Naruto had agreed with that observation quite strongly.

Even after the Medic-nin's retelling of their encounter with Naruto, Sakura was still a tad unsure about what they were telling her to do.

"So…" she spoke tentatively, not wanting to earn another disapproving look and continued on, despite the fact she thought it was an entirely ludicrous way of paying Naruto back for saving her life. "I should smile at him?"

The Medic-nin crinkled their eyes and bobbed their head in affirmation. Finally Sakura was seeing sense! "Hai, hai. Do that and he will be the happiest boy in the world."

_At the training grounds…_

Sakura couldn't believe that she was going to do what the Medic-nin had suggested. But what other advice did she have? None. And this idea…well it did sound a lot more appealing than her simple ramen idea. Of course. If this failed to repay Naruto than, she could go with the ramen as her back up plan.

She stopped walking as she saw training. It nearly brought tears to eyes to think that a few hours ago, he was lying in front of her, dying. But as was the life of a ninja. One minute you could be at deaths door and a second later, up and about; walking around like nothing had happened. She started obsessively at him. Unable to identify an emotion that was slowly welling up in her chest. It was one she hadn't felt in a long time. That much she knew for sure.

Naruto soon spotted her and smiled at her. Sakura surprised him by honest to Kami smiling back. An authentic smile that held no traces of being fake. Sakura laughed at his bewildered expression and rushed over to hug him and thank him properly for saving his life.

Naruto blinked as she continued to smile at him. He was awestruck that she was smiling. Smiling at him. The boy that could never measure up to her ever-glorious Sasuke-kun. He couldn't even remember the last time she had smiled at him like that.

Thus, he didn't question it.

Instead he just enjoyed the sight of truly happy Sakura.


End file.
